PPGIS in Community Development Planning: Framing the Organizational Context

Abstract

This article examines the local variability of public participation GIS (PPGIS) by urban community revitalization organizations, arguing that this variability is in part shaped by a variety of organizational factors. Existing research has shown PPGIS production to be highly context dependent, identifying an ever-growing set of key elements of this context, including a variety of locally available resources for GIS access and use as well as organizational capacities and characteristics. Contributing to current efforts to expand the conceptual basis of PPGIS research, this article argues that the conceptualization of organizational context must be expanded beyond internal capacities to include organizational networks with local actors, institutions, and resources; organizational knowledge and stability; and organization mission and priorities, all of which shape its activities and relationships, as well as the utility of available GIS resources. This broadened conception of organizational context enables a stronger explanation of the influencing role of organizations in PPGIS, as well as of local variability in PPGIS. These arguments are developed from comparative case study research with six Milwaukee, WI, community revitalization organizations engaged in PPGIS within a city-wide participatory planning initiative.